How Online Learning Can Help Entrepreneurs Go Global

The coronavirus pandemic has forced people and businesses across the globe to change their outlook and be more innovative in many instances. This stance is one such factor that has seen a number of people wanting to continue with their education and go back to school.

According to a survey by online education provider Emeritus, 82 percent of adults are interested in pursuing some form of online education – something that has very much spiked during lockdown. Of those, 69 percent said they’d prefer online courses to in-person options.

Dino Mariutti, an entrepreneur who splits his time between Canada and Italy, is one of them.

At the beginning of this year, eager to go back to school, he applied to various MBA programs at top institutions across the world, and in March he decided to enrol into UCL’s newest online MBA.

Dino said: “I don’t think that anyone’s really a master until they continue to really learn and become great at what they do in the course of their life.

“I think there’s a lot of learning to do whatever sector you’re in.”

Dino already has 17 years of experience in the world of business.

In 2012, he founded the tech start-up IRIS Heads Up Display, which he left in 2017. At the moment, he is currently working as Managing Director and Partner of Canada-based equipment provider TM Engineering, and as Regional Director for EU and Investor of Damon Motorcycles, an electric motorcycle start-up that won a top Innovation Award at the CES 2020 Awards.

Nevertheless, despite his achievements in the business and tech fields, Dino still felt the need to pursue his lifelong dream of getting an MBA.

He said: “There are certain things that I consider myself an expert in, so why not try to master those skills? I’ve always had high expectations for myself, and I know that an MBA has certain courses and programmes that I can get valuable knowledge from.”

While he first considered hybrid degrees with campus residencies and digital live classes, Dino says choosing a fully-online course was a “no-brainer”.

He said: “Given the fact that I’m constantly traveling, I cannot even fathom the idea of sitting in a classroom or being on campus.

“Online makes sense to me because at the end of the day it doesn’t mean I’m not going to go to university when I have the chance, but that I have the flexibility that I need.”

Dino got accepted into every school he applied to, but ultimately chose UCL’s two-year online MBA because he felt the program matched his “disruptive” way of thinking by focusing on using data to drive decisions in modern working environments, where technology drives innovation.

But there’s another aspect to doing the UCL online MBA that attracted Dino the most: the opportunity to access a global network of professionals and business leaders.

He said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us how the world really has changed, how we’re a global community and how we can all be affected by the same things, in the same way.

“Business is not local anymore, it’s become so vast and large on a global scale that we have to connect with other people, other cultures.”

For this reason, Dino is currently working on another start-up, which he plans to launch in the near future. He says this new business venture is pushing him to think outside the box and has increased his desire to make meaningful connections across the world, which he believes will happen naturally during an online MBA.

Dino says that he doesn’t see himself “ever not learning”, and that after UCL he might want to pursue a PhD and launch even more businesses on a global scale.

He said: “If you really push yourself in a time of difficulty, whether it’s in investments or personal, professional and company growth, you’re always going to see a massive explosion of potential after.

“It’s the goals that I always have for my business and my professional career that continue to drive me. I definitely want to continue learning every day, mainly for myself. I think anyone who has the opportunity to do that should take it, because it’s phenomenal.”